Parish Grouping
At a Congregational meeting, held in church after morning worship, a unanimous vote of those present endorsed the proposals on Parish Grouping prepared by the steering committee.
A paper had been published over the past few weeks detailing the arrangements proposed for Parish Grouping between St John's, Kirkton and St Andrew's churches. These details had been approved by Kirk Session at a special meeting on 17 October, and now it was the congregation's turn to discuss and vote on it.
The Aim of Parish Grouping:
To provide a united Christian witness by the Church of Scotland in Carluke, to make the most effective use of resources, celebrating diversity, avoiding unnecessary duplication and unhelpful competition.
The Objective of Parish Grouping:
When thinking of something new, actively look for ways of including everyone.
Areas of shared activity of The Church of Scotland in Carluke:
These will be subject to constant review and reform by the Development Group and the Kirk Sessions. Seven areas were identified:
Worship
Parish Grouping will endeavour to work towards more ways of sharing worship with increased variety of styles, times and places of worship.
- Market research may be required to gauge the needs of the town.
Pastoral Care
Parish Grouping will promote co-operation and the sharing of resources among the participating congregations in order to promote more effective Pastoral care.
- We commit ourselves to establishing the Christian Counselling Service in co-operation with other churches in the town.
- A joint Marriage Preparation course will be developed.
- We will explore ways of developing training in Pastoral Care.
Christian Education
Children's education will retain its present forms within each congregation.
Parish Grouping will develop collaborative approaches to Christian Education for Teenagers and Adults.
- Where new ventures are planned they will be run jointly with the focus being on time limited courses which will be well advertised.
Parish Mission
Parish Grouping will provide training and create opportunities to share faith and make disciples.Social
Parish Grouping will provide opportunities for the participating congregations to meet informally.
- We propose a worship event and ceilidh to establish the start of the Parish Grouping.
Communication
Parish Grouping will produce as much joint publicity as possible.
- We will explore ways of developing shared press notices, a joint magazine and website.
Administration
Parish Grouping will establish an administrative structure, which will service the other aims of the Parish Grouping.
- An administrator will be appointed for 2.5 hours per week, financed by a levy of £1/member.
- The Development Group will administer this shared fund.
